1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to shoulder load-carrying strap construction, and more particularly to an improved shoulder load-carrying strap for brassieres, foundation garments, artificial limbs, plaster casts, knapsacks, and similar types of shoulder load carrying or shoulder supported articles.
2. Prior Art
In applicant's previous patent, U.S. Pat. No. 3,025,859, a plurality of stays or stiffeners were inserted in the front and rear portions of a shoulder strap to provide relatively large load bearing areas. Utilization of a plurality of stiffeners requires a plurality of pockets in order to prevent the stiffeners from overlapping one another. In order to form the plurality of pockets, separate rows of stitches must be made in the fabric of the strap. The time required to form these separate rows of stitches is considerable and can drastically increase the length of time required to manufacture each strap. Since the stitching required for this type of strap is generally done on manually-fed and manually-manipulated sewing machines, the labor cost for stitching is high. Consequently, any reduction in the amount of stitching necessary to produce each strap will result in a considerable reduction in the cost of each strap. Since these straps are a volume item, the commercial success thereof could be greatly enhanced by decreasing the cost of each strap.
When carrying a relatively heavy load, the plurality of stiffeners can become uncomfortable, because the edges of the intermediate stiffener can bite into the flesh, and the flesh can be pinched between adjacent stiffeners.